40,000 turn out to see Boaz Mauda crowned winner of 'A Star is Born'

An audience of 40,000 showed up to cheer for the three finalists of the "A Star is Born" television talent show, held last night at the Volume Music Festival on the shores of Lake Kineret.

Of the three singers, Boaz Mauda, Marina Maximillian Blumin and Shlomi Barel, Mauda was voted the winner. Blumin finished second, and Barel third.

As the show began, the three emerged from their dressing rooms, along with a cadre of nervous production workers yelling at bystanders to make way. Blumin appeared with the Mayumana percussion dance group, while Mauda performed with singer David Broza, and Barel with DJ Scuzzy.

Behind the scenes, participants who had been disqualified at earlier stages of the contest were interviewed and photographed. "I'm a little excited but pretty relaxed because I don't have to prove anything; I just came to sing and enjoy myself," Elisa Ashparga said. "The contestants performing tonight look really uptight," she added.

Miriam Toukan, Nadav Kadmon and other contestants appeared on stage and also smiled for the cameras. In the tent set up for the contestants' families, each family had its own corner. It was easy to see which family belonged to each contestant, based on the thunderous applause they offered their respective relatives.

The tension reached its peak at around 11:30 P.M., when the votes were tallied. After Barel was declared the third-place winner, Blumin and Mauda clasped hands as MC Tzvika Hadar opened the envelope to shout out the winner's name: Boaz Mauda.

The production, sponsored by Keshet TV and Cellcom, was produced by a staff of 300 people who had been working for weeks to set up the 120 tons of metal and the seven tons of tiny video screens that composed the backdrop. This was the first fully digital broadcast produced outside - not from a studio - in Israel.

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